JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon rebuffed angry Jewish settlers yesterday, summarily rejecting their demand that he hold a national referendum on his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip and dismantle two dozen Jewish settlements, settlers said.

Settler leaders warned that Mr. Sharon’s plan and his refusal to even consider a nationwide vote were leading the country down the path of civil war.

“The meeting … was a disgrace,” said settler spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef. “We met a stubborn prime minister. He wouldn’t answer any of our questions. He is determined to lead the people to a bottomless chasm.”

Mr. Sharon has angered the settlers, once his most ardent supporters, with his “disengagement” plan for separating Israelis from the Palestinian Arabs by withdrawing from Gaza and dismantling four settlements in the northern West Bank.

Mr. Sharon says the plan will boost Israel’s security after four years of fighting the Palestinian Arabs.

But settlers say the plan sets a dangerous precedent by conceding territory to the Palestinian Arabs and dismantling Jewish settlements.

Mr. Sharon has not met with settler leaders since making a sharp political reversal last year and talking about removing some settlements instead of building more. However, he agreed to meet with them in Jerusalem yesterday, just a week before he presents his withdrawal plan to parliament.

Settler leaders hoped to persuade the premier to hold a national referendum, stipulating that both sides would agree to accept its results in advance.

Cabinet minister Limor Livnat suggested to Mr. Sharon early yesterday that the disengagement legislation to be presented to parliament make the withdrawal conditional on a referendum.

“I heard yesterday night that there is a good chance that they (the settlers) could accept such a formula … in order to prevent a tear in the nation …or even a civil war,” Ms. Livnat told Israel Radio before meeting Mr. Sharon.

Opinion polls consistently show that a solid majority of Israelis support the Gaza withdrawal plan, but Mr. Sharon remained opposed to such a vote, which would delay implementation of the evacuation set to begin in May, his spokesman, Asaf Shariv, said.

Mr. Sharon already has lost two separate votes on his plan – both in his hard-line Likud Party – following intense campaigning by the settlers.

Mr. Sharon refused to budge during yesterday’s meeting with the settlers and appeared to be reading answers to their questions off sheets of paper he had brought with him, settler leaders said.

“We did not get anything out of him. Nothing. Zero,” said settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein. “It was one of the most shameful meetings I have ever had with the prime minister.”

Mr. Wallerstein said the settlers would use all democratic means to resist Mr. Sharon’s plan. Other meeting participants said they would continue to push for a referendum.

Settlers also are pushing for early elections instead of the currently scheduled November 2006 vote. Mr. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority during the debate over the plan and is shakily holding on to the reins of power.

Mr. Sharon pushed ahead with the planned withdrawal just as the army ended a broad operation in the northern Gaza Strip aimed at preventing militants from firing homemade rockets at Israeli towns.

The constant rocket fire from Gaza, which has killed four Israelis, three of them young children, threatens to turn even supportive Israelis against the evacuation plan.

At least 110 Palestinian Arabs were killed during the 17-day incursion, making it the bloodiest military offensive in northern Gaza in four years of fighting.

At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the army pulled back from northern Gaza because “the main goals of the operations were achieved,” including damaging Hamas’ ability to fire more rockets, according to a government statement issued after the meeting.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Mr. Sharon is slated to meet Tuesday night with leaders of the Gush Katif settlement to again discuss the Gaza withdrawal. However, late yesterday Gush Katif leaders said they were reconsidering their invitation in light of yesterday’s earlier meetings with Yesha settlement council leaders that ended in recriminations and deadlock.

The newspaper also reported that Mr. Sharon and settlement leaders, long known as allies, did not shake hands at the end of the meeting.